WSJ: “Treasury to Pay Down Debt For First Time in Six Years”

If you haven’t seen it yet, the WSJ put out:

WSJ: “Treasury to Pay Down Debt For First Time in Six Years”

“The Treasury Department said that it expects to retire a net $35 billion in bonds, notes and bills from April to the end of June.”

Yawn…. It is technically true though. Strong April surpluses will likely be large enough to pull the quarter positive deficit wise, and with $152B cash… in the short run, Treasury can play whatever games they want with the debt. They could pay down the debt $152B today…then re-issue the $152 tomorrow….would it make a difference in anything? No!! All I am saying is that for anyone who understands the deficit and the monthly fluctuations,this is really a nonevent.

We get our final April 2013 DTS today, and when all is said and done, April 2013 will no doubt go down as one hell of a month with YOY revenues surging 20-25%…handily beating my forecast of about 12% growth. However…it is yet to be seen whether this blowout is a turning point, or a last hurrah. I’ll be keeping a very close eye on May-June revenues…if we fall back under 10% YOY growth, it will be a pretty clear indicator that April was just a blip. If, on the other hand we see sustained growth in the 15% range, it very well could be a sign that the trend really is shifting.